Review of The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

Hey there Blog-o-sphere, 

Today I am writing a review of a novel I read recently called The Ghost Bride written by Malaysian-Chinese Author Yangsze Choo. The Novel takes place in a community composed majorly of Chinese immigrants in Malaya, which as far as I understand it is either synonymous with Malaysia or talking about archipelago, it is for all purposes irrelevant to the story as little geographic information is included beyond vivid descriptions of ports and townships and place names. They are given to allow the reader a mental foothold, but for one such as myself, who is completely unfamiliar with locations in Asia as a whole, they aid me very little.  As far as the main character goes, she is a likable and naive girl who is from a family that was once prosperous but has fallen onto hard times. Li Lan is her name and she is the title character, in deed if not by name. She gives the reader a very concise and clear picture of her life in Malaya and her place in the world in the first few chapters. While I thought the books started out rather slow, it had a special something that drew me in and made me pick it back up time and again to continue reading.

It begins as a historical novel, very business like in the clarity and the plot progression and then, all of the sudden, it changes into something quite altogether different. While I am a fantasy novel lover and prefer my settings far away and in most cases, completely fictitious, the landscape of this novel made me shiver with anticipation. I. being so unfamiliar with this foreign culture, felt that, though the places were most likely real (if not formed in a likeness to reality) they lent an air of mystery and difference to themselves. Now I am not sure if this mysterious feeling was a result of great writing, or simply my own ignorance but either way, it is worth exploring. Beyond the setting, the development of the characters is quite appealing as well, each character starts out being rather one dimensional and I anticipated most of them staying that way in such a short novel, but no, Choo somehow weaves her words as to draw deeper pictures of most of the characters within the novel and each new stroke of the brush gives the characters new facets and meaning, beyond what I as the reader believed possible.
The story of the novel, though slow to start, is fast placed enough that after picking the book up and laying it down say, ten times in the first three chapters, I finished it in one sitting, after I began the fourth.

I am now at an impasse, I don't know how much of the story I actually want to share, it being such a worthwhile read, with so many twists and turns it left me reeling. I found the heroine loveable, the villains hate-able and the story progression desirable. If you are a fan of murder mysteries, ghost stories and fantastical turns for the worst, this is your jam.  I will leave my thoughts to this; if there was a sequel, I would already have read it.

You can buy this book at Amazon under the listing below:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Ghost-Bride-Novel-P-S/dp/0062227335